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Economics
International rescue: A summit of European Union leaders in Brussels
agreed that the EU will provide €75 billion (£70 billion) of new loans to
the International Monetary Fund as part of an effort by the Group of 20 key
world economies to boost the IMF’s fire-power for combating global recession
and aiding fragile economies.
Eastern Europe: EU leaders agreed to double to €50 billion a crisis
fund to aid struggling EU member states, mainly in Eastern Europe. Latvia
and Hungary have already accessed the funds, and Romania is also expected to
seek help.
US regulation: Ben Bernanke, Chairman of the US Federal Reserve, said
that Washington needs to find a safer and more effective means to close down
large financial groups, other than banks, without destabilising the whole
financial system.
Eurozone factories: Industrial production in the 16-nation eurozone
suffered a record plunge in January, dropping by 3.5 per cent, in a fifth
consecutive monthly fall that left output down 17.3 per cent from levels a
year before — the steepest annual decline since 1990.
Banking
& finance
Alliance & Leicester: The British bank bought last year by Banco
Santander of Spain said that it made a 2008 loss of £1.3 billion, blaming
writedowns on risky assets. A&L, which made profits of £39 million in
2007, said that it was “cautiously optimistic” about its prospects.
UBS: The law offices of Howard Smith said that a securities
class-action lawsuit was filed in the US district court in New York on
behalf of investors who purchased “publicly traded securities” in UBS
between May 4, 2004, and January 26, 2009. The investors claim that the bank
cheated them.
Barclays: The UK bank is offering to finance almost the whole sale
price of iShares, its exchange-traded-funds business, according to reports
last night. Bidders for iShares, said to include Hellman & Friedman, the
US private-equity firm, are understood to have been offered as much as 80
per cent of the purchase price.
Slaughter and May: The City law firm earned £9.4 million as chief legal
adviser to HM Treasury on the nationalisation of Northern Rock, dwarfing
amounts billed by other advisers. The firm took the lion’s share of the
£26.8 million in professional advisory fees.
Hypo Real Estate: Germany’s Government moved closer to nationalising
the ailing lender after the lower house of parliament approved a law that
allows expropriating shareholders if need be to take over a private bank hit
by the global financial crisis.
Citigroup: The struggling bank said that had it appointed Gary
Crittenden, the chief financial officer, to become chairman of the unit in
charge of its riskier assets and tougher-to-manage ventures.
Construction
& property
DTZ: The upmarket estate agents warned of a full-year pre-tax loss as
conditions in the property market continued to deteriorate, and it played
down prospects of improvement before 2011.
Candy brothers: Nick and Christian Candy, the property entrepreneurs,
were victims of a property swindle by four pensioners who claimed to own a
47-acre estate in Berkshire that they sold to the brothers for £6.5 million
in 2004, it has emerged.
Redrow: Steve Morgan, founder of the housebuilder, has regained power
in the company after building up a 28 per cent stake. He will become deputy
chairman from Monday and chairman after Alan Bowkett leaves in June.
Consumer
goods
Sony Ericsson: The mobile phone maker warned that it would make a loss
and sell fewer handsets in the first quarter as it continued to be hit by
weaker consumer demand. The company said that it would report a loss of €340
million (£319 million) to about €390 million, excluding restructuring
charges. It expects to ship about 14 million phones in the first three
months of 2009, far below the 24.2 million that it shipped in 2008’s final
quarter.
Stanley Gibbons: The collectibles company said that record low savings
rates and the weak pound were helping to boost demand for its products. The
company, which sells goods such as Marilyn Monroe’s autograph, reported a
fall in annual profits because of last year’s “apprehension and uncertainty”
over investments in general.
Engineering
Carmakers: Production of cars fell by 59 per cent last month as
carmakers responded to falling demand. Only 59,777 cars were made in
February, according to the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders.
Production of commercial vehicles plunged by 71.6 per cent to 5,870.
Renault: The French carmaker said it plans to create 400 jobs in France
by moving production of its Clio Campus from Slovenia to a site northwest of
Paris. The move raised concern about protectionism. EU officials have warned
President Sarkozy not to let his efforts to help the French car industry
cost jobs in other countries.
Health
MDY: The healthcare investor said that it has bought a stake of £3
million in ProStrakan and Santhera from 3i Group, the private equity
organisation. MDY also announced that it was setting up an investment fund
focused on Chinese medical technology.
GlaxoSmithKline: The world’s second-biggest drugmaker has sold a
further chunk of its stake in Quest Diagnostics for $256 million (£177
million). It said that it sold 5,749,157 shares between March 17 and 19,
leaving it with 30,755,151, or about 16.5 per cent of Quest, with a market
value of approximately $1.36 billion.
Shire: The pharmaceuticals group has filed a lawsuit against US-based
Mylan for infringing a patent on its kidney drug Fosrenol, days after a
similar lawsuit against Barr Laboratories.
Industrials
Cosalt: The marine safety equipment specialist said that overall
trading to date is in line with its expectations and first-quarter revenue
in its marine and offshore divisions rose more than 20 per cent.
Leisure
Rocco Forte Collection: Sir Rocco Forte, the veteran hotelier, has
strongly rejected persistent rumours that he is sounding out buyers for
Brown’s Hotel, his London flagship. He told The Times: “The
hotel is not for sale, we have no intention of selling it and we have no
need to sell it.”
Media
ContentFilm: The film sales company issued a profit warning, saying
that trading in the last quarter had deteriorated to the extent that
revenues and profits were expected to be about 10 to 12 per cent below the
previous year.
Natural
resources
Total: The French oil group is facing a bill of hundreds of millions of
pounds after a judge found it responsible for Britain’s biggest peacetime
explosion. Total was sued for about £750 million by insurance companies, oil
groups and local residents after the fire at the Buncefield storage depot in
December 2005.
Lamprell: The oil services company operating in the Arabian Gulf warned
that its 2009 results would be significantly below City expectations.
Lamprell said that despite a significant order book, there had been a marked
slowdown in operations in recent weeks, except in rig refurbishment.
Retailing
H&T: The pawnbroker claimed that the shops could spread across UK
high streets at a similar rate to coffee chains. John Nichols, chief
executive, said that the industry was expanding rapidly. The group reported
a 36.5 per cent rise in pre-tax profits, helped by its expansion and the
rising price of gold.
Support
Services
Regus: The serviced office operator reported a 25 per cent rise in its
full-year profits as businesses looked to cut costs by renting their place
of work. Mark Dixon, chief executive, said that Regus’s portfolio of
“recession busting” products was attracting customers.
Technology
TomTom: The navigation device maker based in the Netherlands said that
it had launched a court case against Microsoft a few weeks after the
American software group launched a patent lawsuit against it in the United
States.
Google: The software provider has introduced an “embarrassment” button
for Googlemail users that allows them to pull back a sent e-mail — if they
hit the “undo” within five seconds.
Telecoms
Vodafone: The mobile network operator has partnered with Tango Mobile,
a unit of Belgacom, in Luxembourg to replace a recently ended deal with
LuxGSM, Luxembourg’s biggest network. The deal will allow Vodafone to use
Tango’s advanced third-generation network to offer extra services to its
customers in Luxembourg.
Transport
Jarvis: The company revealed that the rail freight container business
that operated between Kent and Yorkshire has been axed. Jarvis said the
container services part of its Fastline Freight division would close
immediately. It will continue to operate Fastline’s bulk haulage operation,
which has a five-year contract to haul coal for E.ON, the energy company.
Utilities
Gaz de France Suez: The Belgian Government will not receive a so-called
golden share in the French utility as previously agreed with the French
Government. Electrabel, Belgium’s dominant gas and electricity company, is
fully owned by the French group and President Sarkozy had promised the
Belgian Government that it would receive the right to veto strategic
decisions concerning Belgium’s energy supply or key infrastructure.
